Sutton Veny HC
Baptism
Today the Anglican Church celebrates and remembers the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. In the Church of England baptism is considered so important that it is one of only two sacraments the other being Holy Communion. To understand the importance of baptism, it is crucial that we get our heads round this word sacrament. Sacrament as understood in theology is;
An outward and visible sign, ordained by Christ, setting forth and pledging an inward and spiritual blessing”
Many of us would have been baptised as babies. With our parents and god parents making promises to bring us up as Christians and members of the Church. Unlike membership of the Church, belonging to Jesus does not come by physical decent or racial group or depend on a ritual act but comes through faith and a personal belief and the gift of the Holy Spirit received through faith.
When comparing your own baptism with that of Jesus you might immediately notice two important facts the first being that Jesus wasn’t a child but was a mature adult the second was that it was by his own choice that Jesus was baptised.
The origins and reasons for the practice of infant baptism are not known, but we do know from Paul’s letters and the Acts of the Apostles that it was a practice that went back to the 1st century. The New Testament tells us that following the preaching of the Gospel whole households came to faith and were baptised. Infants of those new believers were baptised as part of the household of faith.
The more baptism is seen as the expression of a personal faith the less easy it is to hold to the baptism of infants, nevertheless the Church continues the practise of baptising infants into the Church. As active worshippers in the Church we would want our children to share our membership of the church and grow up with our faith as the foundations for life.
Baptism is seen as so important by the Church that you can only be baptised once. If you change allegiance from one Trinitarian church to another for example if you were baptised into Roman Catholic Church and then decide as an adult to worship in the Church of England you cannot be re-baptised your baptism remains valid for all time in the eyes of the Church.
But what of Jesus Baptism as told to us by St Luke, That Jesus should have undergone a baptism of repentance must surely have caused early Christians some difficulty because the mere thought of Jesus needing a Baptism of repentance contradicted the belief that Jesus and God were one. For Jesus his baptism by John must have been one of expressing to those around him his dedication to God’s will and to the ministry set before him. An outward and visible sign of what was happening inwardly for Jesus. The time had come for his ministry to begin he knew it and it was now time to reveal the inward spiritual transformation to the world in a physical way.
It was also a visible sign of his identification with his disciples who had already been baptised by John and to those whom he had come to minister to. Like adult Baptism today it bears the sense of new beginnings, out with the old and in with the new; a cleansing of the past ready for the new.
After Jesus’ baptism with water the spirit came upon him modelling the pattern of a traditional Christian baptism of water and spirit. The words spoken at Baptism by the Priest is I baptise you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. The passages of scripture read to us this morning emphasises the important part the Holy Spirit plays at a persons baptism.
In the past there have been many rituals and symbols associated with baptism. The use of water normally used in washing something clean is an obvious one; At one time the newly baptised were presented with a new set of clothes an outward and visible sign of the transformation that was happening inwardly for the new Christian. In the early years of the Church the newly Baptised were admitted to Holy Communion for the first time the following Easter Sunday at Dawn. A special ceremony was held for all who had previously been excluded from the fellowship meal we know as Holy Communion.
For us the outward and visible sign of the transformation from a baptised member of the Church to being a member of Christ usually occurs at our confirmation when we confirm and make our own; the promises that were made on our behalf at our infant baptism. We claim those promises for ourselves and declare publicly our belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, repent of our sins and renounce evil. It is never too late to be Baptised if you or any member of your family hasn’t been baptised and now feel ready to be Baptised then please let me or another member of the clergy know and a private baptism can be arranged. There is no need of Godparents for an adult. The same applies to Confirmation if you haven’t been confirmed and would like to be this can also be arranged.
This morning at the beginning of a new year and on the day we remember Christ’s own baptism it seems appropriate that we should renew our own baptismal promises and the public declaration we made at our confirmation. The Creed we recite every Sunday which affirms our core beliefs as Christians becomes special today as it unites us with Christ and his Baptism and the coming down of the Holy Spirit.
We have rededicated ourselves in the words of the baptism service in our confession and will now dedicate ourselves afresh to God in declaring our belief in the common faith of the church and we place ourselves before God for his continual transformation; As we stand and say together the Creed.